Unification
by Johanna-002
Summary: It's what the Holidays are about, isn't it? A belated Thanksgiving story. Red/Gloria Centric.


**Title:** Unification

 **Summary:** It's what the Holidays are about, isn't it? A belated Thanksgiving story. Red/Gloria.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own OITNB or any of its characters. They belong to Jenji Kohen, I do, however, own my writing so please don't steal- Johanna002©

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The sound of Latin music played through out the small apartment. It's tempo steady and melodic as it bounced off the walls, slowly roused Gloria from the peaceful sleep she'd been in. As her dark eyes opened, she squinted painfully at the beaming sun that managed to make its way through the blinds. Shifting from her side onto her back, wrapped warmly in her thick, fleece blanket, she sighed loudly. She felt a painful wave shoot through her spine and she bit the inside of her cheek aggressively. Sleeping on Lourdes' old sofa was hardly ideal, but it was better than nothing.

Pushing herself up on her arm, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and stretched her body upward like a lazy cat. Touching her bare feet to the carpeted floor, she twisted herself at the waist, first to the left and then to the right, breathing a sigh of relief as back cracked loudly.

"Good morning, _mi amor!"_ Lourdes greeted her with a wide smile as she appeared from the kitchen. She reached for the remote on the coffee table and lowered the volume of the radio that was situated in the corner.

"Good morning," Gloria smiled. She could feel the scratchy irritation in her throat and cleared it loudly. "What time is it?"

"Seven," Lourdes played her fingers through her nieces' hair, working to break apart the matted knots of her bedhead. "How did you sleep?"

"Can't complain," Gloria told her honestly. She tilted her head up and hummed a note of approval as her aunt embraced her.

Lourdes kissed her head gently, inhaling the scent at the crown of her head. It felt just like yesterday that Gloria had been a little girl, barely three feet tall, playing at her feet and following her around like a shadow.

She never knew there'd be a time she'd wished for those fays back. At the time, she'd been so unprepared for the responsibilities that a child brought, if not a little resentful, that she'd never truly allowed herself to bask in the moment.

She'd been so young when her sister had passed away, only twenty-two, that she hadn't ever been able to see past her own sacrifices. She hadn't known who she was or what she'd wanted out of life, let alone how to raise a child.

While most women had nine months to prepare for motherhood and raising a new born, she'd had all of twenty-four hours to learn how to parent a five-year-old. Going from _Tia_ to a surrogate Mama in a matter of hours had in no way been the promotion she'd been gunning for, and it'd taken many, many years for her and Gloria to figure one another out.

She may not have always been the most patient or supportive of her niece, but she'd always loved her, and she had always tried to do what she believed in her heart Isobel would have wanted.

"I'm so happy I'm home."

Gloria's words pulled her from her thoughts and Lourdes stroked her hair back gently, her nails gently scratching at the warm skin of her neck.

"I'm glad you're home too _Mija,"_ she whispered. She rubbed her hand in soothing, circular motions over her back before finally releasing her.

"I need to check on my pies," she told her. "You and the boys need to start getting ready, we only have one shower and I don't want to hear you three fighting over the water. We have to be at Galina's around one, right?"

Gloria smiled at her, pressing her lips together to keep the utter glee out of her face. "I'm surprised you said yes to going, _Tia._ "

Lourdes' expression took on a more serious one. "Normally I wouldn't, and you know that. I still don't agree with the relationship Gloria, but you have to know that I'd never be disrespectful to either of you." She touched the large, heavy bun her hair was tired in. "I have to pick my battles, because I don't want to lose you again."

"I know," Gloria rubbed her hand over her mouth. A flush of embarrassment fused her skin, burning most intensely in her cheeks. "It means a lot to me. She's a good person. I think if you gave her a chance, you'd really like her."

"That's why I'm going today," Lourdes admitted. Disappearing into the kitchen, she began to pick up the mess she'd managed to make out of the ingredients.

It felt foolish to feel nervous, but she couldn't help it. This was the first time she'd willingly be in the same room with Galina Reznikov, and she knew that meant having to make an active effort to get to know her.

Though she'd had her suspicions for many months about the truth of their relationship, it had still come as a shock when niece finally confirmed that they were indeed, more than friends. And while she was less than pleased at the revelation, choosing to avoid her where she could, Lourdes had always done her best to remain respectful to Galina, the few times they'd been in the same room.

Now, she subsequently had no choice. This was the first Thanksgiving she'd have Gloria home in nearly ten years, and she was not going to give up that time with her for anything. Too many times throughout the years, she and the boys had opted out of the holiday, the pain of missing her far too great to willfully immerse themselves with happy people.

If she were being honest, Lourdes felt ashamed to admit that she selfishly wanted Gloria and her nephews to herself, to just enjoy the holiday together in their own nucleus, secluded and protected from the outside world. While she may have been able to get away with it, her conscious wouldn't let her.

From all she could gather, and all the conversations she'd manage to overhear, she surmised that Galina had a good heart. She could hear it in the way Gloria spoke about her and could see the effects they'd had on one another just from the radiance on her skin. She'd never thought Gloria had looked more beautiful, and she knew that Galina was the one she had to think for that.

…

Closing the bathroom door behind her, Gloria quickly answered the vibrating cell phone in her hand.

"Good morning," she smiled into the receiver.

" _Good morning!"_ Red greeted her cheerfully _. "Happy Thanksgiving, sweetheart!"_

"Happy Thanksgiving to you. You're up early, it's only seven thirty."

Red chuckled on the other end. _"I've been up since four_ ," she told her happily. _"I love the holidays, you know that. Besides, I had to get to Lida's early to start cooking."_

"Bet Nicky was mad that you left her," Gloria joked. "No one likes to wake up alone, especially on the holidays."

" _She stayed the night over here actually. We were here last night doing prep work and the kids wanted her to stay. Koyla, Vasily's son, got a new game he wanted her to play and she fell asleep on the bedroom floor. I was going to stay on the pull-out sofa bed, but I didn't think it'd be a good idea for my back."_

"Mm," Gloria hummed. "Tell me about it." She held the phone between her ear and shoulder and pushed the flannel pajama bottoms she'd been wearing down over her hips so that they fell into a puddle at her feet. "I'm about to take a shower, so I'm going to let you go. I'm so excited to see you today."

" _A shower hmm…Sounds nice,"_ Red purred a bit in the back of her throat.

"I have to beat the boys if I want hot water," Gloria explained. "And I need to get them up… my first Thanksgiving home... Galina, I'm so excited I might cry."

" _I know, but don't cry, my love. We're all so glad you're home."_

"Christmas will be here before we know it," Gloria whispered. "I honestly could sit with my kids, and you, all day long in pajamas and eat pizza and be completely satisfied."

" _Well, I'd never let you eat pizza on Christmas, or any holiday for that matter."_ Red couldn't help but feel utterly appalled at the idea. _"But I suppose the simplicity of it is a nice thought."_

Gloria chuckled softly. "I love you," she whispered.

" _I love you, too. I'll see you later today, okay?"_ Red exhaled a slow breath. _"Bye, Gloria."_

…

"Good morning, Galina! Koyla, can you say happy Thanksgiving to your grandma?"

Red turned at the sound of her name and smiled as Lida entered the kitchen with Koyla on her hip. She reached out for her grandson, squeezing him against her chest as he wrapped his chubby arms around her neck.

"Good morning," she greeted him, kissing his cheek. "Where is your sister, huh? Is she still asleep?"

Lida smiled affectionately at the pair of them. She rummaged through the cupboards for a sippy cup and took an off brand, sugar-free, gallon of apple juice out of the fridge.

"She'll be awake soon," she assured her mother in law. "Nicky is still asleep on their floor, though. I told her to go to the guestroom, but she wouldn't move."

"The floor is probably more comfortable than our bunk in Litchfield ever was," Red replied honestly. "She'll live." She set her grandson down on his feet and watched as he walked over to his mother and silently reached for his juice.

"Well, had I known she wasn't going to sleep in it, you could have stayed there last night. I didn't think the two of you would be comfortable sharing. The room gets so hot and the bed is so small."

Red waved away her concerns. "It's fine, really," she reassured her. "I needed to go home anyway. There's nothing quit like being in your own space. Besides, I don't get much a lone time these days, especially since Nicky just got laid off, so it was much needed."

Lida nodded along in understanding. "Did you want to stay over tonight? You can have our room. Vasily and I won't mind sleeping on the pullout."

"Honey, no. Really." Red reassured her. She touched her right hand to her heart, a gesture of how touched she truly was. "I'm not going to put you two out of your bedroom, besides, Nicky is supposed to go to Lorna's tonight and maybe Gloria will want to stay over." She shrugged her shoulders. "We'll see what happens."

"Is she who you were just talking to?" Lida pursed her lips together thoughtfully. She watched her son toddled off into the living room and moved around to the sink so that she could wash her hands. "You were on the phone with her pretty late last night too. I guess it's getting pretty serious between you two, huh?"

"I really like her," Red confessed honestly as a smile pulled across her lips.

She'd reached a point, finally, where what other's thought about her no longer mattered. Especially when it came to Gloria. For many months, fearful that she'd upset her family or make them uncomfortable, she'd kept Gloria hidden, treating her as if she were some forbidden secret that she needed to be ashamed of.

The more their relationship evolved, and the deeper her feelings grew, keeping her adoration concealed had become a difficult feat. All she wanted to do, if she wasn't talking to Gloria, was talk about her. That's why they'd made the decision a few weeks ago, to take the next step in their relationship and introduce the other to their children.

Planning lunch at a nearby restaurant, it'd been a wonderful afternoon meeting Gloria's two sons and having them meet her own. They'd end up staying for nearly four hours, going back and forth asking questions and exchanging stories. There'd even been one point during the afternoon where Benny and Vasily had exchanged numbers, Vasily offering to pick him and his brother up any time after school if they needed it since he only worked down the street.

It had been Vasily who had invited them over for Thanksgiving, taking both his mother and Gloria by surprise. Neither had discussed spending the holiday's together, as Red was aware of how standoffish Lourdes felt about their relationship and didn't want to appear disrespectful by over stepping boundaries. She remembered what it had been like spending her first Thanksgiving and Christmas with her son's after being released from Litchfield and didn't want to take that time away from Gloria and her family.

"Is her aunt going to join us?" Lida asked conversationally. "You must be terrified. I can't imagine how nerve wracking it would be trying to impress the mother in law at your age."

"At my age?" Red arched her brow, her lips tugging upward into a smile. "How old do you think I am, Lida?"

Lida smirked. "You know what I mean. I was what, twenty? When I met you. In a visitation room no less, I wasn't exactly intimidated."

"I think it'd have been more intimidating to meet in a visitation room verses a warm home," Red scoffed. "What if I'd been a serial killer?"

"Well, that's true," Lida shrugged. "I figured there wasn't much you could to me in there. Benny said his aunt practices Santeria though, what if she puts a spell on you?"

"I don't think she's a witch, Lida," Red scoffed. "She has her views, nothing wrong with that. She's never been rude to me, but she's made it quite clear I wasn't her favorite person in the world. To be fair, I don't think Gloria's got much credit to her name when it comes to bringing people home, so I can't really blame her. It's like that girl that Nicky brought home earlier this year before Lorna came home… I don't know what she was thinking."

"I was thinking the girl barely looked legal," Lida muttered.

"Well, no matter," Red said gently. "Things are as they should be. I'm hopeful that today will go off without a hitch."

Lida reached for a knife and just as her hand grasped around the handle, she heard her daughter begin to cry in the distance.

"Little miss is up," Red told her as she set a bowl of carrots in the sink to be rinsed. "I'll get her if you'll wash and cut these."

"Sounds good," Lida agreed. "When you walk by, can you hit play on the remote? I paused Koyla's movie and I don't think I ever started it."

Listening to her mother in law's gleeful tone as she engaged with her grandson and tended to the cries of her granddaughter, Lida couldn't help but smile. The holidays had certainly become much more cheerful now that she was home, and she knew they had so much to be thankful for.

…

Squished between her two sons in the back of a cab, Gloria felt butterflies erupt in the pit of her stomach. Inhaling a deep breath, she had to smile at the scent of cologne that filled her senses. It was the subtle moments like this that made her realize her boys weren't little boys anymore. She could still remember when they small and smelled of playdoh and dirt. She used to have to wrestle them into taking a shower and brush their teeth. Now, they were young men, preparing to leave their imprint on the world.

Looking over to her left, at Julio, she had to marvel at how grown-up he looked. Eighteen years old and the spitting image of his father—the sight of him alone took her back. The fact that this was the first Thanksgiving together in damn near a decade broke her heart. She could still remember the last one they spent together. He in his Superman costume and Benny in his Spiderman, they'd both been in complete denial about the fact that Halloween was over.

"What are you doing?" Julio asked her. His gaze was focused intently out the window.

Gloria shrugged and tightened the arm she had wrapped around his shoulder. "Just looking at you," she whispered. "I can't look at you? I made you."

"Gross," she heard Benny mumble.

She chuckled in the back of her throat, grinning as she felt Julio relax against her. She hugged him to her a little more tightly and turned her head to Benny, who surfing the internet on his phone. She laid a gentle hand on his knee and he instantly covered her hand with his own, giving it a gentle squeeze. Whatever they felt about her, or any resentment they still harbored about the choices she'd made in her life, it was obvious that they craved nothing more than to be her.

They'd always been mama's boys, though. From the moment they'd entered the world, they had been glued to her side. If the last ten years couldn't break them, then nothing could. She had a lot to be grateful for this year, and she felt so incredibly blessed and fortunate to be given a second chance.

Catching Lourdes' eyes, she smiled at her aunt widely. She couldn't possibly express into words how excited she was for this evening. She hoped that the night opened her aunts' heart and allowed her to be just a little more open minded with regards to her relationship, because more than anything, she wanted this to work out with Galina Reznikov. She wanted to grow with her and create a life with her, and she wanted to grow and experience everything that they could together.

"Is this it, Gloria?" Her aunt asked as their cab driver pulled to a stop along side the curb.

"Mmm," Gloria turned to squint out the window. "Yes," she answered. "Looks like it anyway."

"Looks like," Lourdes mocked her. "We're going to knock, and it'll be the wrong family." She pressed change into the cab drivers' hand and thanked him quietly.

As both backdoors were opened, Gloria hissed, shivering as the cool wind replaced the comfortable heat, she'd been submerged in. She'd never been a fan of the cold, and the sudden gust of wind chilled her to the bone. She slid along the seat, following Benny out and graciously accepting his hand as he helped her to her feet. Her boots crunched in the snow and she couldn't help but shuffle in place as her body adjusted to the drop-in temperature. Adjusting the large bag on her shoulder, she turned her head to find Lourdes staring at her expectantly.

"Are we going to stand out here on the curb all night or are you going to lead the way?" Lourdes asked her gruffly. Her hands were filled with the pies that she'd baked, and she clutched them to her nervously.

She'd promised to be on her best behavior, but that didn't mean she could easily ignore the coiling pressure in her abdomen. It would have been different to have dinner with Galina and Gloria separately and discuss their intentions, but this was different. This was intimidating. The thought of being surrounded by Galina's entire biological kingdom had her feeling largely out of place, if not vastly outnumbered.

She followed behind Gloria and Julio, watching as Benny comfortably took the steps up the front porch two at a time and knocked one the door. It was only a few seconds later when the front door opened, revealing an older, balding man.

"Gloria?"

"Dmitri?" She couldn't help but chuckle awkwardly as her brows knitted together in confusion. She'd met him only through pictures and stories, but she hadn't quite prepared herself for meeting him in the flesh.

"Come on in," he stepped back and held the door, waving her family in with his free hand. " _Galya!"_ Dmitri called for his ex-wife. He returned his attention back to the family in front of him, closing the door behind Lourdes as she shuffled in behind her niece.

He held his hands out to Lourdes. "I'll take those," he told her gently. "Can I get you anything to drink? Water, wine, soda?"

"Gloria!" Lida exclaimed excited as she appeared with her daughter on her hip, her son following behind her closely. "Hi, boys!" She embraced all three of the quickly before finally holding out her hand to Lourdes. "I'm Lida, nice to meet you," she introduced herself confidently.

"You too," Lourdes smiled at her politely.

Entering further into the open living space, Gloria watched as her sons dispersed from her side to join Red's older sons on the couch.

"Lourdes, this is my husband, Vasily." Lida continued to make introductions as her husband stood up to be by her side. "This is our daughter, Vera, and our son, Koyla," she said gesturing her tiny humans. She smiled as her father in law appeared from the kitchen with two bottles of water. "And this is Dmitri."

"Galina's husband," Dmitri clarified.

"Her husband?" Lourdes raised her brow. Her eyes moved from his to her nieces and look of disapproval instantly flooded over her features.

"Well," Dmitri held up a hand.

"Ex-husband," Red said hurriedly as she appeared from the kitchen. "As in excuse him."

She had a festive apron donned over her clothing and was drying her hands on an equally festive, orange cloth. She placed the damp fabric over her shoulder and took a step further into the room to shake Lourdes hand. Standing shoulder to shoulder next to Gloria, her blue eyes were lit with an excitement that would rival any child's on Christmas morning.

"I'm so happy that you agreed to come," she told her.

Lourdes smiled back at her, tucking a thick lock of hair behind her ear nervously. "Well, thank you for having us."

Red released her hand and gently touched it to the small of Gloria's back. She used her free hand to address Lourdes' attention to the rest of her family.

"This is Maxsim and Yuri," she explained, motioning to her eldest sons. "You already met everyone else, but I have two other grandchildren, Yuri's' kids, running around here somewhere, and my daughter, Nicky, and her girlfriend, Lorna, will be here later tonight."

"I thought she stayed over?" Gloria asked.

Red shrugged and motioned with her head for the two women to follow her into the kitchen.

"She did, and then Lorna called. So, she's going to spend the afternoon with her and then come here for seconds."

"Are you okay with that?" Gloria asked sympathetically.

"Well," Red sighed. "No, but she did promise to have a plate here so, I let it go."

Lourdes watched from a distance as the two of them synchronized in putting on the finishing touches to the meal. There was an immediate lightness to Gloria's eyes, and a gentleness to her tone as she bantered with Galina back and forth. She felt an immense joy in her heart at the warmth and love she could feel circulating thought out the room. She couldn't remember the last time she'd ever seen Gloria so happy. Catching Galina's gaze, she smiled at her warmly. In that moment it was as if a thousand words had been passed between them, and Lourdes exhaled a deep breath as she bowed her head gently, a silent token of her blessing.


End file.
